Bishop Speech - Grenada is Not Alone
[25 November 1981]

It is now my pleasant, but also sad task to bring this historic conference to a close.

I am sure that comrades here will be feeling like we all are, a little bit tired, and perhaps a little bit sad at the prospect of having to part from comrades who many of us may have met for the first time over these past few days.

Comrades, for us it was undoubtedly an historic conference, a very successful conference and for us a very deep learning experience.

We have no doubt that for you it must also have been a process of learning; learning in the sense of finding our something about our country, the aspirations of our people, the problems and the modest progress and achievements we have made over the past two [2] years and eight [8] months; something about the prospects which face us in the immediate future and about the immediate concerns and the threats of aggression which continue to hang over the heads of our people

Much more importantly, comrades, we have learnt from you, and we have been reminded by you of several important lessons; lessons which we will always cherish, lessons which sometimes we tend to forget.

You have reminded us in these past three [3] days of the meaning of true solidarity, of the meaning of internationalism, of the meaning of expressing in a real and tangible way support for a process that is taking shape.

I cite two examples of this solidarity.

One comrade, who is the Ambassador to his country based in Cuba, when he could not get a flight to come to Grenada, chose to go all the way to Canada, and from Canada to work his way back down, in order to be here at the start of the conference - Comrade Ali Mohammed [Ajili] of Libya.

I think of a second example that is no less dramatic and has no less meaning and significance for our people; a comrade who has come from a country thousands and thousand of miles away, a country that would not even have been heard of by our people two years ago, a comrade who belongs to the Central Committee of his party and is therefore one of the top leaders of his own country.

This comrade had to fly for over 36 hours in order to get to Grenada. When I met with him today, he said to me that if he had to fly for 96 hours, he would have done it. I refer to Comrade Dogin Yondonsuren from Mongolia.

To have 112 delegates in our country, to have 90 delegations coming from 41 countries, to have all continents on our globe represented in our country at this time expressing solidarity with our process, means more than mere words could ever hope to describe for our people.

This injects our people with a new sense of confidence, a new sense of courage and of direction, a much deeper understanding of what it is we are all about.

WE ARE NOT ALONE

Your presence has reminded our people of why we are united in this anti–imperialist struggle and why we are united to end poverty, oppression and exploitation in the world

This has brought a new depth of richness to our people.

Comrades, listening to you speak of your experiences has also reminded us over these past days, that our struggle in Grenada is by no means a unique struggle, that our struggle is not one that is being trod for the first time in the history of mankind.

This is a struggle that many have walked before.

It is a struggle that many are walking today out of their conviction that even if the struggle looks hard and the road looks long, there is only one road: the road of anti–imperialist unity, the road of destroying imperialism in the world.

U.S. ARROGANCE ON NAMIBIA

You have reminded us, comrades, that we share a common struggle, that we have a common problem and a common enemy.

When we speak to Comrade [Bernard] Kamwi from SWAPO, we are reminded that  SWAPO is the sole authentic representative of the people of Namibiaa and they have to fight with arms in hand in order to gain their independence and their freedom, so as to begin in a serious way the process of social liberation.

It reminds us that some of us were indeed lucky that we did not have to resort to armed struggle to gain our independence, that we got independence on a platter, that the Queen of England could have posted independence in an envelope, but other comrades have to fight with arms in their hands to win their independence.

This conference reminds us, comrades, that racist, apartheid South Africa is able to wage such oppression against our sisters and brothers in Namibia, because South Africa has an open mandate from the United States of America to do what it wants in Southern Africa.

In addition, it reminds us that some people are so arrogant that they believe they have a right to tell others what they must do in their own country, that they have a right to reshape even mandates that some from the highest international body - the United Nations.

It is another aspect of the struggle that the comrades of SWAPO and the people of Namibia has to face.

In 1978, after years of open, racist and arrogant defiance of international opinion by South Africa, the United Nations, through Security Council Resolution 435, finally laid down in no uncertain terms the conditions for a speedy independence for Namibia.

But just two and a half [2½] years after that international organization had spoken in this very clear and unequivocal manner, one country, again it is the United States of America, decides that it must rewrite the will of the rest of mankind.

Thus, they set up this so–called Western Contact group of five and the United States thereafter bring consistent pressure on the other four to try to rewrite the mandate.

The USA insists not that there should be elections first, as the United Nations had demanded, but that there must be a constitution first.

They insist that this constitution must not infringe on the privileges and the exploitative rights of the tiny white minority inside of Namibia.

On this model, what will emerge for the people of Namibia will be mere paper or flag independence.

The United States abrogates this right unto itself.

WE REMEMBER VIETNAM, ETHIOPIA, LIBYA, PALESTINE

Over the past few days, we have had the presence in our country of one of the bravest and most heroic people who are today still facing aggression, still facing difficulties, still facing armed force, by the new Chinese mandarins who have amassed 800,000 troops on their border and who every day engage in armed provocations.

It has reminded us that the only people that other peoples all over the world have always admired and will always admire for the blows they struck against imperialism - not just Yankee imperialism, but also French imperialism - are the fighting, heroic people of Vietnam.

We have also been reminded of the continuing struggles and the continuing difficulties, that our comrades are facing in Ethiopia with daily provocations from Somalia, with weekly and monthly threats of manoeuvres and aggression by the friends of Somalia and the puppets of imperialism in the region. Their struggle has received our fullest solidarity over these past few days.

Likewise, the struggles of the people of Libya over these past few months have engaged out fullest attention.

Imperialism, using its twin sister, the media, has been trying to portray over the past three months that “the most dangerous and wanted man in the world” is Mouammar Gaddafi, because he has stood up and supported national liberation struggles.

Today, we find that his country and his people are openly vilified. Today, when their planes fly over their own sovereign territory, they are subjected to being shot down.

We now find that mobilization and preparedness must become a daily part of the existence of the people of Libya.

Over the last few days, we’ve also been vividly reminded of the struggles of the courageous Palestinian people against brutal Zionist aggression and exploitation, and by talking with Comrade Imaad Zadaa [Imad Jadaa], who represented the Palestinian Liberation Organization, [PLO], the sole legitimate representatives of the fighting Palestinian people, our understanding of US imperialism’s support for Zionist Israel’s terrorism has been made sharper and clearer.

To the millions of Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their beloved homeland in 1948, the people of Free and Revolutionary Grenada say:

CUBA AND NICARAGUA

In our region, we are again reminded by the presence of our revolutionary and heroic comrades from Cuba and Nicaragua, that they too face daily imperialist aggression.

Revolutionary Cuba after 22 years is still not able to get a rest from imperialist aggression.

Revolutionary Cuba which has had to face blockades, the blowing–up of El Coubre, the bandits in Escambray, the invasion at Playa Girón, the artificial crisis of Mariel; Revolutionary Cuba, whose people were the first to inflict a sound beating on Yankee Imperialism in this part of the world, today still finds itself confronted.

Cuba and Nicaragua today find themselves threatened.

[Alexander] Haig, [Richard V.] Allen, [Caspar] Weinberger, [Jeane] Kirkpatrick and [Ronald] Reagan - the cowboy himself - today openly boast that no options will be ruled out, that a blockade is possible, that a quarantine is possible, that economic aggression will continue, that the propaganda will not cease and that, if necessary, an invasion will be implemented.

The freedom–loving people of Grenada, however will always stand firm in revolutionary solidarity with our Cuban and Nicaraguan sisters and brothers.

OUR WEAPON IS OUR UNITY

Today, the threats that our sisters and brothers in the region face have also come back to us very forcefully, but comrades, the past few days have also reminded us in a very positive and forceful way, that we have solutions and that the one common solution that we have, is - UNITY.

The internal unity of our people and the external unity of all forces interested in peace, in democracy, in social progress, in national liberation.

That lesson has also come back because when we think of Southern Africa we cannot forget that of the eleven [11] countries in Southern Africa, nine [9] of them, bar South Africa and Namibia, have come together in this South African Development Co–operation Committee [SADCC] and have joined together, therefore, in a united way, to try to collectively fight against apartheid and imperialism.

When we see with us Libya, Ethiopia and South Yemen in our country, it reminds us that these three [3] countries have only this year, (in the past few months) come together and signed a pact to defend their sovereignty, to defend their right to build their own processes, to defend their right to self–determination against the threat posed by the “Bright Star” manoeuvres, being waged by Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and Oman, manoeuvres which receive the full backing of the United States and Zionist Israel. They too are showing us the importance of unity in action.

We see in our country the comrades from Vietnam, and we think of the united action that the liberated people of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos have forced in order to support and protect against the United States, against some circles in the ASEAN pact countries.

NORTH AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN SUPPORT

Further, comrades, when we look around we see sisters and brothers who have come from Europe, who have come from Denmark where they have formed a Denmark–Grenada Friendship Society and those who have come from Sweden where they have formed a Grenada–Sweden Friendship society.

We recognize also those who have come from France where they have also formed a France–Grenada Friendship Society and those who have come from Britain where a similar association exists.

When we speak to them and then, equally, we speak to the comrades from North America, from the United States, where several friendship societies have been formed and from Canada where there is also a friendship society, what we are reminded of is that the people of Europe and the people of North America are not our enemies and that the majority of those people are our friends. Our enemies are the fascists like Reagan and imperialism.

WAR AND PEACE: THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM

What we also recall is that brothers and sisters in Europe and North America have been going to the streets over the past two [2] months, have been daily holding massive marches, have been daily calling for missiles not to be put on their soil, have been daily fighting for peace and for justice in their countries, have been daily saying that they want an end to the arms race and therefore have been joining the cause with the rest of progressive humanity who desire peace and fear war.

That is a very important reminded of what is today the fundamental problem - whether our planet will survive, or go up in a nuclear disaster.

Over these past few days, comrades have also reminded us, in a way I think we had come to forget, of the correctness of the path of socio–economic and political development we are pursuing in Grenada.

That was also a very important reminded to our people because we who are involved on a daily basis in trying to forge the people’s revolutionary democracy, in trying to ensure that our problems are correctly analysed and evaluated by our people and that our people have the opportunity of contribution to the solution of these problems, tend to lose perspective on the historical significance of our process.

THE HIGH PRICE OF PRINCIPLES

We take for granted the arming of the people

Yet it is a very new and different matter in the English–speaking Caribbean section of this region.

Our people now take this for granted because they have come to understand that it is necessary to be armed in order to defend our homeland.

They have come to understand that the People’s Revolutionary Militia is for us both a practical matter and a matter of principle.

A practical matter because we could never afford to have a big professional standing army that has to be paid many dollars every month. Our economy is too poor for that.

A practical matter because we know when the wardogs come for us, they are not going to come in their hundreds, but they are going to come in their thousands.

Therefore, what we need, apart from our full–time standing army [PRA], is a part–time revolutionary army of the people waiting and ready to defend our country.

It is also a matter of principle for us, comrades, because we have come to understand better with every passing day, that one of the lessons that we can extract from the experiences of other revolutionary processes in this region, it that sometime they had to rely on their standing armies, the same standing armies that got involved in coup d'états. Allende’s Chile is perhaps the most classic example.

Comrades still ask us how come we are not afraid to arm our people, how come we do not believe hat, at some point, our people might use the same arms against us?

We answer: when on the morning of the Revolution, 46 of us went down to the radio station after charging the barracks and routing Gairy’s green–beast army, our lives were on the line, and the reason why our people responded magnificently to our call is because they trusted and respected our leadership.

We are very, very certain that what our people knew in 1979 about our party and about his leadership, they know a million times better in 1981.

Comrades, we express our high appreciation that so many of you representing so many different organizations, parties, governments and countries have been able to come here and stand with us over these past three [3] days.

We very much appreciate the sincerity, and the feeling that you have put into your messages of solidarity with our process.

We very much appreciate the pledges which so many of you have made as a contribution that your organization, that your Party is willing to make to help us build our Revolution, but most of all, comrades, more, much more than your solidarity statements, much more than the pledges which you have made, we very much appreciate the sentiments which you have expressed, in favour of our people; we appreciate more than anything else what you have said about our people.

OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR RICHES

When you say that our people are not many in numbers, but they are united, they are determined, they are confident, they are assured of their future, they will confront and fight imperialism, that is the greatest praise you can give us and our people and that is what we appreciate most of all.

When the great Amilcar Cabral, founding father of Guinea–Bissau, was alive, there was a very famous statement he often made.

He would say that his country was not a mountainous country, and there fore there was not much possibility for traditional guerilla warfare against the Portuguese colonialists, but the lack of mountains did not matter because the people are the mountains.

We say in Grenada: our people will make up for our limited land.

The people are our land, they are our resources, they are out riches, they are our future, and we are confident that our people on this small island will yet make history in the future of this region.

CONCRETE INTERNATIONALISM

The internationalism that you have shown over these past few days, also reminds me of something which Comrade Dr. Bernard Kamwi, delegate from SWAPO of Namibia, was saying to me today.

Cde. Kamwi, as some of you may know, is not only a diplomatic representative of his party in Cuba but is also the principal of the school the Cubans built to educate over six hundred [600] Namibian children on the Isle of Youth.

That school, comrades, is the Hendrick Wittboy [Wittboi] School, thus called after one of the early fighters for national liberation, in Namibia.

That school was guilt to house six hundred students, Comrade Kamwi was telling me; and a few weeks ago Comrade Fidel Castro paid a visit from mainland Cuba to the Island of Youth to visit the school.

While he was engaged in discussions with Dr. Kamwi, Fidel inquired how many students are in the school.

Cde. Kamwi replied six hundred and seventy–six (676); and Fidel’s reply was “that is too many since the school was built for six hundred students.”

Comrade Kamwi replied: “there are many more students in Namibia who still need an education, and that’s why we have to ram and cram them into this school.”

Fidel replied that Cuba had just built one new school, designed for other purposes, but because the people of Namibia need it, “I am telling you today that his other new school is yours for the people of Namibia.”

Immediately after he told me that story, Cde. Kamwi said something that would sound ridiculous.

He said that act of solidarity was in fact very well appreciated by his party and people and any day now another six hundred [600] students will arrive in Cuba.

He went on:

I then said to Cde. Kamwi that in the light of the story he had just told me about Cuba, I felt ashamed that we had contributed only fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) and that it was for me a matter of the deepest regret that our process had not yet been sufficiently built, for us to make a much more meaningful contribution to the struggle of our brothers and sisters in Africa.

I said to him:

DESPERATE IMPERIALIST LIES

We will help you to fight every lie that the imperialists in these desperate days are throwing against us.

We will help you to combat every slander that is used against your own just struggles.

Imperialism has moved now from small lies, medium–sized lies and big lies, to what in Grenada we call “Maco*” lies.

In Grenadianese, Maco means “to spy, peep, someone who minds other people’s business.”

Now, even when they are exposed and the lies catch up with them, instead of admitting that they were caught with their pants down, they multiply the lies by ten or twenty or a hundred times.

Take, for example, the lie they were spreading this month, that five hundred [500] combat troops from Cuba were sent to Nicaragua and from there to El Salvador.

When this was challenged by Fidel, when the article was sent to the New York Times and the Washington Post; instead of coming out and admitting that they were caught fair and square, they proceeded to multiply the lie by six times.

Then they said it wasn’t five hundred troops, but it was really three thousand (3,000) troops sent to Nicaragua for El Salvador.

And not satisfied with that lie, they went on to implicate the people of Vietnam, saying Vietnam had sent not one [1], nor five [5], nor ten [10], nor even twenty [20] planes but one thousand planes and helicopters [1,000] to Nicaragua and from there to be used in the fight in El Salvador.

Just imagine one thousand planes and helicopters, more fighter planes than the industrially developed country of West Germany has, more fighter planes than the United Kingdom or France has.

What would it take to service one thousand planes and helicopters? At lease fifteen hundred [1,500] pilots, upwards of ten thousand [10,000] specialists and logistics personnel, all of whom would have had to be trained at great expense.

Even the United States of America itself, with all its power, cannot train more than two hundred [200] fighter pilots every year yet they claim Nicaragua has one thousand planes and helicopters.

They are so desperate and so determined to lie that their lies are now becoming our greatest allies.

The more they lie and the more they exaggerate, the more it becomes easy for us to be able to expose them, and to get the people of the world to understand that lies can never be a weapon against truth.

One of the comrades who came in the last two days brought for us a paper now being circulated called West Watch and it contains a series of nine [9] articles including one entitled Grenada - Caribbean Dictatorship.

The rest of the articles are on Cuba, of course, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

This rag is put out by the Council for Inter–American Security [CIS], the same jokers who had published Inter–American Policy for the Eighties. 

They sometimes call themselves the “Santa Fe Committee” and one of their studies is sometimes called The Fontaine Report [or Santa Fe Document] which has been used as one of the basis for Reagan’s war–mongering campaign.

It was this study which was used as the basis for saying that the time had come for the United States of American to once more resort to the Monroe Doctrine, to once more resort to open invasions of the territories of the peoples of Latin American, that that right was a sacred right the United States must reclaim and, that the people of Panama have no right to their Panama Canal, the Carter—Torrijos Treaties notwithstanding.

These same people are now putting out this rag every month, and reading through this thing I came upon this paragraph which I want to read to you:

The article continues, said Bishop:

Comrades, the truth is that we have shown the greatest humanity to the counter–revolutionaries.

When, on the 13th March, 1979 our people went out and picked up the “mongoose gang” and rounded up the secret police and the criminal elements in the police force, elements who systematically tortured our youths, who use to flush their heads into toilet bowls, who used to make our women eat cockroaches, these criminals arrived in the jail without even a scratch on them.

Today, these liars behind this vile propaganda trash dare to slander the good name of the Grenada Revolution.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

But, comrades, we know that this campaign is not accidental.

We know it has been deliberately planned and carefully conceived.

We remember only too well that when Salvador Allende was freely elected by the people of Chile in September 1970, and had to wait three [3] months before he was formally inaugurated, that former C.I.A. Director Richard Helms and former President Richard Nixon sat down within days of his election and worked out their famous plan, “Operation Make the Economy Scream”, and a large part of that plan was the campaign of propaganda destabilization.

We remember only too well that when our friend Michael Manley, having won the elections in ’72 and ’76 in Jamaica, began to embark on a policy of reforms, on a policy of bringing benefits to the people of Jamaica, immediately the propaganda campaigned started.

That campaign was spear headed by the Jamaica Gleaner, the same Gleaner which was against the patriots Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle, the same notorious Gleaner which praised the arrest and jailing of Marcus Garvey, the same Gleaner that today hypocritically praises all of these people as national heroes of Jamaica.

So, we can understand what the role of these rags is.

On further examination, we know that the purpose of these newspapers is to prepare the ground psychologically for imperialism to strike.

We know that they are used in such a way by the C.I.A. to prepare the people of the United States for a psychological invasion of the Cubas, the Nicaraguas, the Grenadas and the El Salvadors.

We understand that role very well and we understand too, comrades, that the purpose of the lies that they spread is to try to destabilize popular processes, to try to make people lose confidence in themselves and confidence in the government and party which leads them, to try to confuse the masses of the people.

We understand only too well what their role is and that is why we need vigilance, that is why we heed always to be ready to expose these corrupt journalists when they try to use their newspapers and magazines as a business, in the same way as a businessman would sell a yard of cloth, or a pound of saltfish.

The establishment newspapers sell news and buy news.

They put in what they want, leave out what they want, tell what lies they want, fool people as much as they want.

We have to be vigilant about that, we have to be ready to attack that when it happens.

We have to understand the reason for that kind of attack and our people need to be able to see what the true role of these “saltfish” newspapers really is.

AN ABUNDANCE OF NEGATIVE COVERAGE

Only yesterday, I was reading the usual fortnightly analysis that is done by the comrades in our information section which looked at different newspapers in the region, in this case from the 15th–30th  September [1981].

In this 15–day period, nine [9] newspapers were reviewed and there were 103 articles in those nine newspapers or 6.5 articles per day on Grenada and the Grenada Revolution. Of course, a fair chunk of those were hostile and nasty slander.

Another period 21st October–7th November [1981], showed another 103 articles written by the same nine newspapers or 5.7 articles per day.

In other words, we are helping these people sell their own newspapers. Every day there is some new lie being spread and vigilance on that is extremely important.

ARMS BUILD UP IN THE CARIBBEAN

Comrades, that is only a part of imperialism’s plan to recolonise the region.

Another part of the plan is to try to put arms into the hands of everyone in the region whom they perceive to be their “friends”, as they call them; those who are willing to act in their interest, those who they hope they can use to police sections of the sub–region for them.

Here is an interesting fact of history: until two [2] years ago, no country in the Eastern Caribbean had ever received any military assistance from the United States by way of arms sales.

But we have recently been analysing another document entitled Security Assistance Programmes which is the U.S. Congressional presentation dealing with their foreign military sales and financing programme, their economic support fund, their military assistance programme and their so–called peace–keeping operations.

The first page is highly instructive because it shows how they define the Eastern Caribbean.

The Eastern Caribbean, they say, is Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent. Note there is no Grenada! Grenada probably is in Africa!

In 1982, their proposal is to sell arms to the tune of $5.5 million (U.S.) to these Eastern Caribbean countries.

Their proposal for Jamaica is that, in 1982, they will sell arms to the tune of $1,000,000 (U.S.).

They claim here that their estimates for 1981 were $1,587,000 (U.S.) in arms sales to Jamaica.

Also, there is an interesting figure for Barbados. Next year they propose to sell little Barbados $2,000,000 (U.S.) worth of arms and according to this official document, this year, they expect to sell Barbados $5,000,000 (U.S.) worth of arms; altogether $7,000,000 (U.S.) in arms to little Barbados.

Now, I wonder where that war is going to be fought.

Comrades, this document is interesting for a second reason, in that part of this presentation to the Congressmen contains a justification of why they propose sales to these different countries.

They have included a section that deals with how much they have provided by way of economic support.

There are three columns here showing expenditure for the year 1980; the estimate for ’81 and the proposal for ’82.

That again is very interesting. What these figures conclusively reveal in the area of “economic support and aid”, as they call it, is that contrary to the lie that some of these people in the region life to spread, that it is because of Grenada they are no longer getting aid from the United States, that these figures show conclusively is that it is because of Grenada they are now getting so much aid from the United States.

There was no talk before the Grenada Revolution about a Mini–Marshall Plan and a Caribbean Basin Initiative [CBI].

Now every two [2] weeks somebody is running up and down the region talking about one or the other.

There was no such frenetic activity taking place before the Revolution.

This document claims that in 1980, $4 million (U.S.) was used for the economic support fund for the Eastern Caribbean.

This document also says that in 1982, $20,000,000 (U.S.) will be used for the Eastern Caribbean - remember, minus Grenada. Sixteen million [$16,000,000] (U.S.) more in bribery!

Sisters and brothers, comrades, we have no quarrel with this action at all.

We have absolutely no hard feelings about the fact that the Grenada Revolution has been of service to our sisters and brothers in the region, but we want the facts recorded honestly.

Let Eugenia Charles stop telling lies when she says that Grenada stops her from getting money. The truth is, Grenada, instead, makes her get money.

[The year] 1980, as comrades would remember, was the last year of the Michael Manley Administration, and according to this programme, no money was provided under the economic support fund for Jamaica in that year.

In 1981, according to this document $41,000,000 (U.S.) was provided by way of economic support and in 1982 the proposal is that $42,000,000 (U.S.) will be provided by way of economic support for Jamaica.

What is perhaps even more interesting about this document is the rationale these people use to their Congressmen concerning the different programs.

After each particular programme they speak about the particular country and they explain why the country must get the money.

I want to read sections of what they say about Barbados.

Under the sub–heading Justification of Programme, these are the words:

The document continues and I quote:

I pause to say that perhaps that explains better the presence of the nuclear carrier there last week.

The quote continues: “The programme is a positive indication of our commitment to regional stability, in the light of continuing Cuban support for the radical government of Grenada”. End of quote.

MANIFEST DESTINY

So, comrades, these people are not even hiding what their intentions are. They are coming out very openly and saying they have the right to do what they want in our region, to assist in a big arms build up in the region, to promote countries that they feel correctly or incorrectly are in their interest and will support them and to try to use those countries to isolate countries like Grenada.

All of that is very clear as a result of this document.

But, as I say, so far as the question of economic support is concerned, we not only support and welcome the $20 million, we would tonight call on the Americans to move the $20 million to $200 million for the rest of the Eastern Caribbean.

That would still be small compensation for years of colonial plunder and imperialist rape of all of our countries and our resources.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

Comrades, in our respective struggles for peace, for justice, for social progress, we certainly hope that as you leave here to return to your homelands, you will build or will strengthen even further the anti–imperialist alliances and fronts in our own countries to fight for peace.

We certainly hope that meetings like this can take place more regularly, so that we will have an opportunity to exchange information and to demonstrate our solidarity in as concrete a way as possible.

We in Grenada will continue to support all of the struggles of the people of the world against colonialism, neo–colonialism, racism, Zionism, fascism and imperialism.

That is a firm pledge we are going to make.

Grenada certainly pledges that we have no plan of turning back, that we are going to continue to go forward with revolutionary firmness.

In the 1960s, following the great Cuban Revolution, the imperialists developed the slogan “no more Cubas in this hemisphere”. That ran for over ten [10] years.

When Allende appeared on the scene, they developed another slogan, “no more Allendes, no more Chiles in this region”.

When Grenada and Nicaragua came on the scene, they said, “no more Nicaraguas, no more Grenadas”.

We certainly hope that by next year they will add to that “no more El Salvadors”.

We also hope that by next year they will add to that “no move Namibias” and “no more South Africas”.

More importantly, we hope, comrades, that soon they will have to keep saying every single day, “no more this, that or the other,” until the people of the world finally achieve total victory over imperialism!

LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLES OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLES AGAINST IMPERIALISM!

LONG LIVE UNITY, SOLIDARITY AND CO–OPERATION AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!

LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE, PEACEFUL CO–EXISTENCE AND DISARMAMENT IN THE WORLD!

LONG LIVE THE WORLD REVOLUTION!

LONG LIVE THE GRENADA REVOLUTION!

FORWARD EVER! BACKWARD NEVER!